June 4 Meeting with Commissioner Murtaugh

I didn't give comment this past week at the public Commissioners meeting because I'd been contacted by Commissioner Murtaugh earlier in the morning about speaking with regard to TEAS. I wanted to see if we could finally get on the same page about records and requirements of the TEAS, Inc non-profit and work together to make sure the county is performing its duties in good faith.

This morning Commissioner Murtaugh and I had that meeting. It's clear now that this is going to have to go through the legal system. The end result of all of this is that Commissioner Murtaugh is deferring everything to the lawyers and public access counselor and does not seem inclined to help make this visible to the public.

For each of the items that I've outlined in the bylaws that say the Members (The government units, not the people that just happen to be serving as director on the board of directors) of the corporation must be presented with and take votes on, his response is:

• They're performing those meetings, seeing those things and taking those votes, but there are no records being received by the government units because they're only ever shown to the members on a screen- they're never presented with any files or papers for there to be a record.
  
  

We went back and forth on several things:

1. I tried to have him look at specific provisions and tell me why there would not be a record of that thing
   

2. I tried to have him explain how the Members of the corporation could possibly vote on anything without having received the information about that thing
   

3. He told me he doesn't understand how anyone could think there's anything nefarious going on here

   • I pointed out that there being absolutely no records of anything required of the Members of the corporation ever occurring that the public is allowed to see looks pretty suspect from the outside

   • I pointed out that every time it's been asked about improvements to response times and employee pay changes, he provides no actual proof and only gives his word
     

4. He told me he sat down himself with Franciscan and IU lawyers to create the bylaws of the organization

   • This is interesting because when I put in the public records request for the operational audit defined in it, he was confused as to what I was talking about

   • This is interesting because when I put in the public records request for the meeting minutes received by the county, he seemed confused on that as well and I had to point out that these things are specifically required to be received by and voted upon by the County to accept and he seemed unaware.

   • This is interesting because when asked to talk through the specific provisions of the bylaws and look at a plain reading of what they say, he says he's not a lawyer and that he's going to leave that sort of thing for the lawyers

     • Why was he not sitting down with the County and City lawyers as well when this was created?
       
       

It was only after the meeting that I realized that there's a huge contradiction here in what he told me today and what was in the content of the responses to my public records requests:

• Commissioner Murtaugh purports that he acts both as the Director on the Board of Directors in his personal capacity for the things the Board of Directors has to do, and acts on behalf of the County when doing the things required of the Members. My public records request for meeting minutes from TEAS, Inc was given a response that Director Murtaugh is in possession of these files, but Member Murtaugh (the entity he says is acting as the agent of Tippecanoe County) never received them. Both entities have to vote to accept these meeting minutes. He says he's acting as both entities, yet the entity that would be subject to public records requests magically never received it and only viewed it.

As such, I've additionally requested the County's records of mail/email/calendar notices of the annual and regular Member meetings of the corporation from the last 3 years. These notices are required by the TEAS, Inc bylaws to be delivered via mail to all of the Members of the Corporation. Let's see if they also tell me there are no records of these.

Efforts are likely to be slower for a bit while I start working through filing complaints with the public access counselor and Indiana Attorney General's office and while I wait for a few specific people to get back into the office to continue pursuing this from the city end. I will, however, be making sure to continue giving public comment with what updates I have.

More to come.